The Orchard Book

Wow and wow again. How have I wated this long to come to Kelly's work? What I love most, I think, is how she makes vast music from simple things. She lives in a simple, domestic (although outdoor domestic) world. And yet. How does she manage to move into dream, myth, fear without seeming overwrought? There's a quiet description that seems very characteristic and that aids in this, I think, and that grounds the work.

Deer, orchards, lying on the ground, birds... and the fears that come out of even the manicured-lawn dark. She's a Freudian poet, in a way. Or Jungian. But writing toward essence. Toward a sense of things that signify. What a strange, wonderful mind.